Patrick Maddam: The Value of the Alexander Technique

"When you are a performer on stage it is impossible to play your instrument without actually showing something of yourself, there is a direct connection between how you are and the music you make. There are not so many other careers where you are so exposed and so people have to learn to be comfortable with that. (...)

For a while now, the academy has come to understand more that the Alexander technique delivers this crucial important area of confidence and stability in the training of young musicians. (...) It is a system by which this young musician can become connected with his instrument, it is nothing short of that, it is a bridge between how you feel and how you are and the sound that this instrument makes, be it an oboe or a cello. (...)

The (Alexander) Technique can be sustaining, it is something that if learnt well, can be carried along with you for the rest of your life. It gives you confidence to be who you are when you are up in front of an audience, and this is why it is so crucial to the Academy which is training performing musicians (...)."
(Maddams, Patrick: The Value of the Alexander Technique, in: The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine, Performing Arts Medicine News, Volume 3, Number 2, London 1995)

Die Alexander-Technik kann jungen Musikern eine große Hilfe sein.
(Patrick Maddam, Managing Director, Royal Academy of Music)